Our Share of Night to Bear
by RealWorldWriter47
Summary: Twoshot based on the idea that Damon got to Elena first and asks her to marry him as a game to pass the time he must spend waiting for Katherine. Things get complicated when he starts to have feelings for her, and the secrets he must keep weigh on him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story was originally a oneshot with a different first chapter. For right now it is a two-shot, but only because I can't stand to start another story and not finish it. If its liked and I have enough creative stamina I will add more, as this was originally supposed to be a full story. This chapter is a background to the original and I think the story makes much more sense this way. Hope you like the revision. R&R**

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><p>Elena Gilbert was not the marrying type, certainly not at 17 years old. Not that she hadn't dreamed of the big day of course. Like every little girl she had cuddled into her mother's arms as the woman mused about flowers and the perfect white dress. After her mom died though, Elena thought she might never think of those things again. So it was a surprise when the teenager announced her upcoming nuptials to the mysterious newcomer of her town, Damon Salvatore. No one in their right mind could blame her, what with his bright blue eyes and chiseled physique, but the suddenness of it all took Elena's friends by surprise, deeply concerned her aunt Jenna and would have troubled her brother Jeremy had he been in any condition to pay attention to his sister. Elena had no idea that the marriage also was on the mind of her fiancés' brother, a man she had never met and had heard very little about, Stefan Salvatore. She could hardly know that Stefan had been looking out for her since he had become aware of his brother's arrival, or that he cursed himself for getting to her just a little too late. Of course, if she had known any of this Damon would have compelled her to forget. He had already used the trick on her before, so that sometimes when she came back from a date her memories of the hours would be vague and clouded. As was always the case with compulsion however, Elena didn't notice anything amiss and never would as long as her future husband had his way.<p>

Elena stood in her kitchen, leaning her stomach against the island and examining her flattened palm against the counter. There, glinting against the lazy light of the setting sun was the engagement ring that Damon had given her the night before. She had always supposed that the young man was rich because of his house, his car, and his clothes, but if there had been any lingering uncertainty about the size of the Salvatore bank accounts, it vanished at the sight of the gigantic diamond on her finger. Such a sign of status shouldn't have made her happy, but Damon had suggested that it should, and why not? Why not be proud? She grinned at the ring before lifting her gaze back to her best friend, Bonnie. The pretty girl's features were fixed in a resigned sort of way, a look only exacerbated by the fact that she had her hands pressed against her hips. Elena sighed and rolled her eyes, letting her impatience get the best of her. They had been through this mistrust so much during her short relationship with Damon that she could play this conversation out in her head despite the new factor of the engagement.

"What now?" she let out her breath in a huff.

"See? It's right there." Bonnie moved one of her hands so that she could point at her friend, "he's changing you."

"That's ridiculous." Elena dismissed the accusation with a wave of the hand.

"Is it? You don't ask questions about him, Elena. It's like you don't care. What does he do with his time, Elena? How does he make his money? What happened to his parents? Or his 'uncle'" she threw up infuriating air quotes at the title for the man who had lived in the house before Damon's appearance. Her suspicion was not the only one among the town. The fact that the secretive recluse of a man had disappeared right after the newcomer had burst onto the scene had not gone unnoticed, and rumors flew that the man hadn't been family at all, but rather some sort of hostage who then had to be murdered because he got in the way. Of what? Elena had no clue, but she didn't put much stock in rumors to begin with, and even less where Damon was concerned. It was all because he was tall dark and handsome. They were jealous of him, and of her she guessed.

"You don't understand. You don't know him like I do." Was all she could manage to answer without losing her temper. She pushed herself away from the counter and rummaged in the cabinet for some snacks. They needed a movie night, anything that would keep them from talking about Damon. Angry tears stung at Elena's eyes as she searched. She had been so excited to share the amazing news with Bonnie and all she had were warnings and chastising words. She wiped her eyes with the back of her ringed hand and heard Bonnie sigh behind her.

"You're right. I don't." She conceded, coming around the island to wrap her friend in a hug. Elena's fury melted almost instantly. She could never stay mad at Bonnie, and with her best friend at her side she felt she could take anything, "I'm so happy for you." It was a lie and Elena knew it, but it was enough for now. She would see when she spent time with him. Elena was sure. For a moment the two stood locked in the forgiving embrace, and then the door bell rang.

"I should get that." Elena extricated herself and made her way to the house's entry room.

Damon knew that Stefan was in the house without even looking, though his brother had long vowed that they would be separated for as long as they could manage in eternity. He imagined that he could smell the stench of judgment wafting from his younger brother, and he turned to where he knew he would find Stefan standing near the bookcases.

"Hello brother." He offered the greeting lazily to the shadows. Evidently Stefan was trying to be menacing by skulking out of the shadows, but giving up he stepped slowly into the orange glow the dancing fire provided.

"You proposed to her." Damon smirked. He liked when his brother skipped to the chase. It meant he was getting to him.

"Well, Stefan, I'm not getting any younger…or older for that matter." He shrugged as though the matter had just occurred to him and took a slow sip of his drink.

"You can't toy with her; make her into your play thing. She is _not _Katherine."

Damon snorted sardonically, "You say that like you know her, brother. Have you been stalking?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Just keeping an eye on things." He amended.

"Well, don't. I've got things under control here."

"You mean you have Elena under your control." Stefan's words were like acid as he stepped closer to Damon, but the older vampire didn't even flinch. He knew that Stefan's diet prevented him from winning any fight they might have, even if he was allowed to get the first move in.

Again Damon scoffed, "Stefan, I am perfectly capable of getting a teenager to love me without compulsion."

"But you do compel her." Stefan reminded him, his hands in his pockets, circling slowly.

There was no remorse when Damon spoke, "only so she doesn't go blabbing. She came to me all on her own."

"Only because you insinuated yourself into her life!"

"And what would you have done? Enlighten me, Stefan."

When he answered his voice was low, "let her make the choice for herself."

"Only when you made sure she got a good look at that brooding face of yours." Damon mocked his brother's tense features and constantly furrowed brow that was in such contrast to his own relaxed countenance.

Stefan ignored the quip, "She doesn't know what you're capable of"

"Obviously neither do you, or you wouldn't still be standing there."

"You wouldn't hurt me, Damon, not now, not after all these years."

The vampire's eyes flashed dangerously, "try me."

"Leave Elena alone and I won't have to. Give me your word and you won't hear from me again. But I'm warning you now, as long you're with her, I will be here to keep her safe."

"Wanna bet?" Damon's confident tone set his brother on edge almost instantly, trying to decipher what plan he could possibly have, "We'll see what Elena has to say about that." He set down his drink and strode to the door with the ultimate air of ease. Stefan's threat obviously hadn't caused him a bit of hesitation.

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked, but he was sure he already knew the answer, and almost wished he didn't have to hear it.

"To my fiancé's house, of course." Damon smirked as he opened the door to the night and stepped out into it.

"Damon." Elena couldn't help but smile at the sight of her fiancé at the other side of her door, despite the surprise of his arrival. Automatically she found herself on her toes to kiss him, and Damon leaned in to allow it. She rested her hands against his sturdy chest and touched her lips to his, but it was only as she pulled back that she noticed his grave expression.

"What's wrong?" her brow furrowed.

He caught her left hand as it slid from his chest, fingering the diamond that rested on her ring finger for a moment before he looked up at her. He had decided that it would be best if he looked reluctant and pensive before this particular news. Damon Salvatore was a good actor, you had to be when you had lived as many lifetimes as he had, and he made sure that his voice held the right amount of trepidation infused in it before he spoke, especially with Bonnie watching from the doorway of the kitchen, "My brother is here." He met her eyes and found confusion.

"Brother?" Elena led him into the house and shut the door, "I didn't know you had a brother."

"That's because I've tried to keep him from you." That was at least a truth, likely the only one he would tell in this story.

"Why?" she asked cautiously.

"Because Stefan is not a good man."

"And?" she waited.

"I was afraid he'd hurt you, like he did Katherine."

"Your ex?" Elena stared at him, perplexed. Why would Damon's brother hurt his ex girlfriend? How?

"I can't prove anything," Damon prefaced, "but pretty soon after Katherine started dating my brother, she got herself killed in a mysterious fire. He's charming, Elena, and he stole Katherine away with his act. Don't trust him. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. History will not repeat itself." Damon smirked internally as he used the very words that Stefan had called out to him as he was leaving the boarding house.

"Damon, you need to call the police. You need to tell them. If he's that dangerous he—"

"Is my brother, Elena." Damon interrupted.

"Why would he want to hurt Elena?" Bonnie intoned as she came into the room. Her friend had quite forgotten she was there, and jumped at the sound of her voice.

Damon let out a loaded sigh. That little bitch was always questioning, always wondering, checking his stories for holes. In the short time that he had spent with Bonnie, he already loathed her. Inquisitive little snit.

"Because he's unstable." He growled in a way that was harsher than he had intended.

Elena placed a restraining hand on Damon's shoulder, "hey." She shot a glance at her friend and her fiancé in turn, determined to show that she was not taking sides when it came to them.

"You should have told me." She admonished, "But I get it. I'll stay away from…Stefan."

Damon smiled down at Elena, amazed, not for the first time, at how she took everything in stride. He was almost convinced that he could let her remember he was a vampire, and she wouldn't even bat an eye, but she was human, and it was of course, not an option. He settled for cupping her cheek and kissing her swiftly before turning to Bonnie, "I can see I've interrupted girl's night."

"Yeah." Was Bonnie's clipped response, which earned a roll of Elena's eyes.

"You can stay." She assured, "there's plenty of room on the couch. I could sit on your lap." She threw him a mischievous smile that almost made him stay, but he did still have Stefan to contend with, and some gloating to do.

"Chick flicks aren't really my style." Damon said as he made his way to the door, waving at Bonnie if only because he knew it would anger her.

Elena crossed to the door to bid him goodnight, "see you later then?"

"soon." Damon promised as she shut the door.

She bit her lip against a smile. He really was swoon worthy. She leaned her back against the door and sighed, watching as Bonnie rolled her eyes and went back to looking for snacks in the kitchen, "what?" she asked in mock insult, joining her friend, but she knew that Bonnie was only teasing her this time, and she couldn't quite blame her.

"So you're marrying that guy?" Bonnie asked as they settled into the couch. There was a smile on her face, but her words betrayed the concern she feared would never quite go away.

"Yes, yes I am." Elena couldn't help but giggle. She was marrying Damon Salvatore.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This is yet another one-shot in an attempt to get the ideas to write something more substantial. This is based on the idea that Damon got to Elena first and asked Elena to marry him in a sort of game (after all, he is the Damon we met in season 1). Stefan did follow his brother to Mystic Falls to try to dissuade the lovely Elena from marrying his brother, but as you will see she is very much in love even with this Damon. Hope you like it. R&R**

**The title is taken from an Emily Dickinson poem, which I own no more of than _The Vampire Diaries._**

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><p>Elena knew that Damon was preoccupied. In fairness, he wasn't exactly a hard guy to read. He stared off into the fire of the library, his eyes so far away and his expression sour. She stared at him from the doorway, leaning against it with her hip pressed against the wall. Concern mingled with the knowledge that he might need space. This wasn't the Damon she was used to, the charismatic character who would have noticed her some time ago and made some witty remark before planting a kiss on her neck. A part of her wished that she could have that man back, but a voice in the back of her head told her that this was the more real of the two. She wanted real. She wanted a life with him after all. She loved this Damon too, and it was this realization that made her decide to cross the distance between them.<p>

She tiptoed across the floor, a fistful of her ivory slip in her hand while the other held a tall glass of merlot. The dark concoction still warmed her throat and played across her tongue as she walked, but she brought it to her lips as she stood in front of Damon's leather chair, "you didn't come to bed." She observed after a long sip. Her tongue flicked across her top lip as she pulled the glass away, drawing away any droplets she might have left.

Damon looked her up and down, the sheerness of the fabric at her breasts, the flowing cascade of silk that danced across her ankles even as she was still. She looked sexy, but there was no question it was by design. She had curled her dark tresses at the bottom so that they crashed like waves over her shoulders; her eyes showed a smokiness that he had to admit was enticing. It was only her lips that remained untouched by any purposeful change, tinged as they were only with the wine she had been sipping. She had come expecting a romantic night, and all he had was brooding silence. He suddenly had to fight the urge to apologize for his mood.

"you look beautiful." His voice was a dark whisper, and Elena put her glass down before slipping lithely onto the arm of the chair beside him. She ran her fingers through his hair.

"you can tell me." She assured just as quietly, so that the words could have been lost in the crackle of the fire, but to her surprise Damon let out a derisive laugh.

"I can't, Elena, that's the problem."

Elena had to fight past her shock to answer, and she fought to keep her voice calm and supportive, "I love you. Whatever it is I promise I'll still love you." It was true of course, she was hopelessly in love with Damon Salvatore, and no matter if he dropped a bomb shell this night, or if she was horribly mad, she would love him.

Damon twisted in his seat, grabbing her waist and pulling her into his lap. She blinked up at his tormented face and ran a finger across his hard features. She raised her head and ran her lips against the bridge of his nose until she felt his sigh play across her skin. His arms encircled her back and pulled her close. It was a very different intimacy then she had been expecting, but it made her heart swell to think that perhaps Damon did need her as much as she needed him. She felt more loved in this embrace than she had in any other, and she found herself whispering promises into his ear. She was here. She would never leave him. They had each other now. Tears fell from her eyes as she spoke, dark stains down her cheek, dangling precariously on her chin before dropping on his collar bone. He pulled her away from him as he felt the wetness, looking perplexed as he brushed a tear with his thumb.

"You're crying?" his question had morphed into mocking when he spoke, and he immediately regretted it.

Elena blushed and wiped her eyes furiously with her palm, slipping from his lap and getting to her feet with shaking legs, "sorry. It's stupid. You've just never relied on me for anything before, not like this." She turned away from him, wrapping her arms around herself and thinking of how to escape with what little dignity she had left.

She heard Damon get up from the chair, but still jumped as she felt his hand on her shoulder, "I messed up, Elena, I don't have a lot of experience with this you know."

"With what?" she sniffed, turning back to him. He took the opportunity to run his hand across her cheek.

"With you. With love in general. I've made some bad choices in women before you. None have been as good as you, or cared like you do." He had also never told so much of the truth to a woman before, not since Katherine, and here he was looking into the same eyes, touching the same skin, and it couldn't have been more different. Elena's eyes were alight with adoration, with gentleness and sweetness. When he had looked into Katherine's he had seen nothing but the fire that drove her every move, the self serving flames that had kept her alive for so long. When he had told Katherine things it was because he had been blind enough to believe that she had cared, but with Elena he would have been blind not to see that she _did. _

"Katherine" Elena was almost afraid to utter her name, as though it were some curse or plague. She didn't know what it was about this girl, but there was something foreboding about even mentioning her. Damon didn't need to acknowledge her comment for Elena to know that she was right. It was always Katherine.

Yes, Katherine. Damon had come to Mystic Falls with the express intention of finding the girl and vampire whom he had fallen in love with all those years ago in 1864. She was the driving force behind all of his actions; she was why he had found Elena in fact. His fiancé had been a game until not long ago, a way to abate the loneliness that came with searching for an entombed immortal. For a while he had been able to look into those eyes and see only Katherine. He had even been able to take her love greedily with only her mirror image in mind, but seeing Elena, it scared him. He was so close to achieving his goal, what he had worked toward his entire life as a vampire, but he wasn't sure he wanted it anymore. The fiery siren no longer held the spell over him that she once had. Damon could just as easily picture himself with the passionate girl before him, the one who cried for him and loved him as only a human could, with the wild abandon that came with knowing you did not truly have forever. But how could he drop the pursuit that had been his life blood, his sustenance, for so many years? He had to rescue Katherine, didn't he?

He wanted to tell Elena all of this, wanted to unload his overburdened soul and tell her what he was. He didn't want to hold back his past or the people he'd killed or the monster he'd allowed himself to become until he had grown to love her. He wanted to know what she thought he should do. It was crazy, asking your fiancé what you should do about your eternal love. He couldn't even tell her what he was. He had fooled himself into thinking that because it was him, because he was her fiancé, she would accept what he was. But no, that would never be the case. He murdered to survive, and Elena was far too good to accept that, and there was no way in hell he was going on Stefan's diet. He had his standards.

So, instead he grabbed the wine glass from the side table and brought it to his own lips, she stood watching him for a moment before reaching for the glass. He handed it to her without a word and sat back heavily, still weighed down by his secrets. Elena's eyebrows knitted together. She wanted to ask what troubled him, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to know. The girl was dead, and still her ghost haunted the Salvatore brothers. Her power was intense enough even in death to keep Elena's mouth shut. Damon would tell her one day, she was sure. She would get more than the vague details and they would share the sadness together. He wasn't ready though, not now. What mattered at the moment was that he realized she was here for him. There was nothing more she could do.

She stepped over to him, running her fingers over his eyes, forcing his eyelids to close. He caught her hand as it traveled to his lips, kissing them briefly before releasing them, "good night, Damon." She whispered, leaving as silently as she could and making her way up the staircase to his bedroom. She sighed as she entered the room, closing the door tight behind her and bracing her back against it. She felt exhausted. She felt old, as though all of Damon's sadness had manifested itself in her, and as sadness does, aged her greatly. She looked longingly at the monstrous bed that took up most of the space, but didn't turn straight to it. Instead she went to the bathroom. She scooped her hair into a messy bun at the base of her head, wiped her face free of the makeup that had been put on only an hour or two before in an attempt to entice Damon to this bedroom…not that he ever needed much convincing. Only then, feeling much freer than before was she able to crawl into the bed and let her eyes close.

It was hours before Damon finally ended his reverie and followed Elena's trek up the stairs. He had been replaying his moments with Katherine. He had known her for such a short time, but there were so many looks to decipher, so many lazy afternoons of strolling through the gardens, playing football, marveling at her confidence and beauty. His relationship with Elena, how tangible it was, how connected they were, had him questioning how real he and Katherine had ever been. Had she ever shown an interest in him? She had certainly shown one in his brother. He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his thoughts at the subject of Stefan, despite his confusion over the girl. Here Stefan was again, playing the hero, trying to poison Elena against him, trying to _protect _her, as though Damon would hurt her. Well, he wouldn't let that happen. Stefan claimed he was trying to keep Elena from Katherine's fate, but by playing these games he was only driving her closer to it. Making her choose, trying to woo her, making her question his motives for cutting Stefan out of his life, it was all designed to make her fall in love with him, and so help him, Damon would fight for her.

Damon stopped in the doorway of his room, watching Elena's sleeping form in his bed. Her knees were curled in toward her chest, her hand open on his pillow as though searching for him. The fabric still clung to her body, revealing every curve. He walked over and kissed her bare shoulder, and she stirred slightly, but she was in such a deep sleep that she didn't wake. He kicked off his boots and stripped down to his boxers, sliding into bed beside her and taking her waiting hand in his own. He turned his head to look at her, glad to see that she looked more like herself. The makeup was gone to reveal the clean, gentle face he had grown accustomed to. It was true that she had looked beautiful, but he far preferred her this way. It was only in looking at her that he was able to fall into an untroubled sleep.


End file.
